'Wild Things' make actor's heart sing

Updated 12:30 am, Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Photo: Mike Reid, BBC America

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"Wild Things" stars actor Dominic Monaghan.

"Wild Things" stars actor Dominic Monaghan.

Photo: Mike Reid, BBC America

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In BBC’s “Wild Things” series, actor Dominic Monaghan travels around the world and mingles with all sorts of critters. The show is also a lot about life, food and customs in the various countries Monaghan visits.

In BBC’s “Wild Things” series, actor Dominic Monaghan travels around the world and mingles with all sorts of critters. The show is also a lot about life, food and customs in the various countries Monaghan

Dominic Monaghan may be a grown man, but his enthusiasm for creepy crawly things is not only childlike, but pretty irresistible in the new BBC America series "Wild Things," premiering tonight.

Monaghan, 36, gained fame as a an actor working with the formidable Patricia Routledge in "Hetty Wainthropp Investigates," before breaking out in such vehicles as "Lost," "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

But as he says in the introductions to the eight episodes of "Wild Things," animals — the creepier and crawlier the better — are his other passion in life. We don't doubt it, as in the first episode, the actor tromps through the jungles of Vietnam in search of the giant water bug, which may only be 3 inches long, but has been known to capture and kill creatures 10 times its size. It does so by injecting its prey with flesh-dissolving venom.

Along the way, like Dorothy's scruffier British cousin on an overgrown road to Oz, Monaghan makes many new "friends," such as a huge python he struggles to lift on top of his own body, a water scorpion that looks like a praying mantis and a deadly monocle cobra he grabs by the tail.

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As much a travel show as it is about critters, "Wild Things" tells us a lot about life, food and customs in the various countries Monaghan visits (which, in upcoming episodes, include Laos for the giant huntsman spider, Namibia for the black hair thick-tailed scorpion, Venezuela for the world's largest centipede, Cameroon for the giant white goliath beetle, Ecuador for army ants, Malaysia for giant honey bees and Guatemala for the Guatemalan beaded lizard).

He shops for fruit and strong, highly sweetened coffee available from various boats moving along the Mekong in Vinh Long. Later, he chows down at a restaurant known for delicacies such as cricket, scorpion and breast of she-goat. He orders a small vial of giant water bug essence, which he mixes with fish sauce.

And you thought wasabi was strong.

Eventually, Monaghan travels by boat on the Dang Nai River to Cat Tien National Park, then treks inland to the aptly named Crocodile Lake, said to contain 120 crocs, whose eyes glow menacingly after the sun sets. Donning a wet suit, Monaghan descends into the shallow, nearly opaque water in search of the giant water bug.

His journey continues in the second episode in neighboring Laos, where he encounters a luminously green tree viper and smaller huntsman spiders before he and his arachnologist guide, Peter Jaeger, travel by inflatable kayak into a six-mile long cave to find the giant huntsman, which, despite its dinner-plate size, was only discovered by Western scientists in 2000. On the way to the cave, Monaghan comes across a group of locals holding a "rocket festival"—shooting off homemade fireworks as a kind of message to the heavens to make it rain. It's almost needless to say it, but when it rains in Laos, it's a bit more than a summer sprinkle. If the heavens happen to get the message, though, Monaghan and Jaeger could find themselves trapped inside the cave by rising water.

We might not want to kiss a python or tickle the furry, pincered chin of a giant huntsman spider, but Monaghan's obvious love and respect for his little jungle pals alleviate whatever ick factor we may be experiencing in our living rooms. Funny, fearless, down to earth and informative, Monaghan makes a great host and guide and gives us a new respect and appreciation for nature's wild things — from a very safe distance.